Alkyl amines are useful in industries such as pharmaceutical, agriculture, rubbers, water treatment, paints and dyes, as well as for intermediates and starting materials for making other compounds.
Alkyl amines have been prepared from ammonia by alkylation with alcohols, in the presence of a catalyst, and followed by purification of the product. Alternatively alkyl amines may also be prepared by treatment of haloalkanes with ammonia and amines, however, the degree of alkylation is difficult to control. Another method for producing alkyl amines is the reduction of nitriles, by catalytic hydrogenation, to alkyl amines.
Preparation of alkyl amines by dehydroxylation of aminoalcohols has not yet been reported. Reductive dehydroxylation is known for activated alcohols, e.g., benzylic alcohols. It has not, however, been documented for aminoalcohols such as 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (2-AMP).
Mitchell, et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. (1938), 60, 2723, describes the use of hydroiodic acid (HI) for the conversion of polyols to alkanes. However, no mention of the application of such reaction chemistry to aminoalkanols is made in this journal article.
The ability to produce alkyl amines from alternative feedstocks, such as, aminoalcohols or aminopolyols, would be beneficial and is desired.